ED Anxiety

This was my first election voting, how exciting for it to be such a history-making one!

While we all anxiously await the results how about some pictures of Ralph Nader circa the 1969 October 3rd issue of Life Magazine (that I bought for a dollar at the Woodstock Flea Market)?

Yes, this picture has been widely circulated, but dudes, 1969 Life magazine! In my hands! How awesome!

Bonus pic from the magazine:

I didn’t vote for him (Cynthia McKinney got my vote, holla!) but man do I love Ralph Nader.
And his quotes.

“You can’t spoil a system that is spoiled to the core.”

“The only true aging is the erosion of one’s ideals.”

And one of my personal favorites, Ralph Nader on hot dogs, calling them “Missiles of death.”

I leave you with one final quote, this one from Archy and Mehitabel, a cute little book I just read about Archy the cockroach and Mehitabel the cat and their perspectives on things.

From xii:certain maxims of Archy.

“The bees got their governmental system settled millions of years ago but the human race is still groping.”

****Update: Well, since I wrote this Obama was elected president (!!!) and Ralph Nader came out with his Uncle Tom quote, which I am sure you all know about by now. I had never heard the term Uncle Tom before yesterday, and I haven’t read Uncle Tom’s Cabin (although now I plan on it), and at first I didn’t fully understand what the problem was, but I think I get it now. How disappointing that he couldn’t have used another analogy for what he was trying to say. I still respect him for the work he has done in the past, but this was a bit of a blow to my admiration for him.

Like this:

Related

2 Responses to “ED Anxiety”

What a rad article to own!!! I’ve been using the “missiles of death” and “You can’t spoil a system that is spoiled to the core” lines myself for years — I had no idea they were so old!!

About the Uncle Tom comment:
I agree with Ralph! And I think our society is too anxious about talking about race. I think there is a real danger Obama will be so worried about being a quote unquote radical that he won’t take this opportunity to really help bring about real progressive change when it comes to issues of racial inequality.

Here’s exactly what he said:

“To put it very simply, he is our first African-American president; or he will be. And we wish him well. But his choice, basically, is whether he’s going to be Uncle Sam for the people of this country, or Uncle Tom for the giant corporations.”

Earlier, he had said, in an open letter to BO:

“Far more than Senator McCain, you have received enormous, unprecedented contributions from corporate interests, Wall Street interests and, most interestingly, big corporate law firm attorneys.”

These are both true, and I understand what he was saying and think he was smart to say it.

Also, interestingly, when and if you read Uncle Tom’s Cabin you will learn that Uncle Tom wasn’t really that much of an “uncle Tom” as the term has come to mean (a black person who betrays his race and sells out to whites). He actually stood up for his beliefs and was pretty rad, if you read the novel in context. I think it’s time to retire the Uncle Tom thing.

Just my 2 cents!

I am in Northampton, Mass and just ate some handmade vegan chocos from a candy store – not so great! Will give you the full report later! I almost bought you a cute vintage apron at a thrift store, but it was the ridiculous price of $40. :(

Ooops, I should have mentioned those quotes weren’t in the article. I think they were in a book I read about him and I just copied them down into my notebook since they were so great (and still are)!

“I think there is a real danger Obama will be so worried about being a quote unquote radical that he won’t take this opportunity to really help bring about real progressive change when it comes to issues of racial inequality.”

That’s a good point! It gives me something to think about. The amount of contributions Obama accepted is quite disappointing and I completely understand and agree with what Nader is trying to say, but on the other hand if Obama was white the Uncle Tom thing never would have been brought up. I don’t believe Nader is racist but I wish he could have said it differently.

I was about to say I think I’ve been to that candy store, but then I remembered the one I’m thinking of is in Great Barrington. I had a sample of some weird textured gelato there. And woah, that’s a bit exorbitant for an apron. Thanks anyway!